BRIEF ITEMS FROM LONDON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26918, 2 November 1948, Page 5

BRIEF ITEMS FROM LONDON

From E. J. Webber, N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 8 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 1. The King and Queen have had several theatrical engagements recently. After attending the official ODening of Parliament the Queen went to a performance by former students of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at Drury Lane and on Friday night the King and Queen went to the People’s Palace, East London, to see Bernard Shaw’s comedy “In Good King Charles’s Days.” Last night their Majesties and Princess Margaret attended a Royal Command variety performance at the Palladium, and next week the Queen is to see J. B. Priestley's latest play, “Home is Tomorrow,” at the Cambridge Theatre. “ Little ’’ Arthur Askey The King intervened on behalfr of the well-known musical star, Arthur Askey, last week. The King and Queen,. with the King and Queen of Denmark, who are at present visiting London, had gone to the Princess Theatre to see Askey’s uproarious parody of Shakespeare, “ The Kid From Stratford.” When Askey was invited to the royal box at the interval, King Fredrik of Denmark, who is a very big man, shook him so vigorously by the hand that King George interposed smilingly: “Be careful. He • is only a little man.” % Royal Gift to Abbey | Princess Elizabeth and the Duke df Edinburgh have followed the example of the King and Queen and made -a special gift to Westminster Abbey to commemorate their marriage. The King and Queen, after their marriage, presented the abbey with two silver candlesticks, which stand on the altar of Edward the Confessor, where The marriage register was signed. The Princess and the Duke have given two gold offertory plates, inscribed: “In memory of our very happy days.” Mrs Ernest Bevin

One little-publicised function during the Commonwealth Conference in London was a party given by Mrs Beasley, wife of the Australian High Commissiofier, to give the wives of visiting conference delegates and officials the opportunity to meet Mrs Ernest Bevin. Mrs Bevin confided to the guests-at the party that her greatest difficulty, in life was to see that the Foreign Secretary got regular meals. “When he is not well,” she said, “ I cook all his meals myself." Roosevelt Memorial Mrs Roosevelt, who is at present lattending the United Nations Assembly in Paris, has accepted an invitation'to attend the unveiling of the memorial to her late husband in Westminster Abbey. The memorial takes the form of a tablet placed in the only remaining vacant space on the Abbey walls, between the great west door and St. George’s Chapel. It will bear inscription which has been jointly suggested, by Mr Attlee an£ Mr Churchill, but which will remain a secret until the unveiling ceremony. Mr Roosevelt will be the fourth American to be commemorated in the Abbey. The first was George Peabody, the American who built houses for the poor of London, and who was buried in the Abbey in 1869. The second was the American poet and diplomat, James Russell Lowell, and the third the American Ambassador to Britain during the First World War, Walter Hines Page. On the day following the unveiling ceremony, Mrs Roose-. velt will be presented with the honorary degree of doctor of civil laws., at Oxford University. • Churchill Story ' Field-marshal Lord Ismay added another to the long list of Churchill stories when he spoke at the first post-war dinner of the East India Club. The story concerned three exhausted chiefs of staff who, towards the end of the war, decided at last to take a day off and go fishing. General Hollis, then secretary to the chiefs of staff, was left in sole charge, but no sooner had his seniors disappeared than Mr Churchill rang through and demanded each of them in turn. General Hollis, in an attempt to cover the absentees, said they were resting, but this was not good enough for Mr Churchill, who. demanded the whole truth. When told it, he said: “ Fishing! Fishing! WhSt’s wrong with you to-day, Hollis, couldn’t you have stopped them? ”